SIMON ANDERSON
Simon is an experienced consultant currently working on exciting projects across the world including the $5.5 billion redevelopment of downtown Doha and the creation of a new food hall in Iceland. Prior to this he worked as the Chief Operations & Creative Officer of Market Hall helping it grow from an idea to the UK’s leading food hall business with three sites in Fulham, Victoria and the West End. Awarded ‘Opening of the Year’ for Fulham at Restaurant Magazine’s R200 Awards, the ‘Re:lax’ and ‘Re:tail’ awards at the Revo Gold Awards , ‘Occupier of the Year’ by Property Week, ‘Best Destination Opening’ for Victoria at the CGA Hero & Icons Awards and West End shortlisted as ‘Best Venue’ at the Retailers’ Retailer Awards 2020. Since launch, the business has seen over 2 million customers.
Simon has a range of experience with several ground-breaking brands across multiple sectors, including food and drink, coworking, art, digital marketing , advertising and charity, earning a unique set of skills.
CYMON ECKEL
With a deep background in Music, Art & Fashion, Cymon applies vision and creativity to the built environment. As an operator he has an impressive track record of sourcing space and leveraging value by applying culture - converting blank spaces to galleries, social spaces, venues and happenings, this resulted in a placing in the Evening Standards’ top 1000 influential Londoner’s list.
Awards include being placed in Design Week’s ‘Top Ten Design of the Last 10 Years’ ; Time Out ‘Bar of the Year’ runner-up two years running. Sites include the Riki-Tik in Soho, The 24 hour/3,000 capacity venue The Coronet at Elephant & Castle, LED the digital Diner, The Griffin in Shoreditch, XOYO the nightclub & venue, and Forge & Co the frontline co-working space on Shoreditch High St.
Cymon currently consults for Store X at 180 Strand on co-work strategy and The Vinyl Factory on sourcing, placemaking and execution strategy. His previous clients include: Budweiser, The Brits, GCI, Levi’s, Japanese Tobacco, Dazed & Confused, O2, Dockers, Microsoft, Turner Networks, Diesel. He is currently developing a next generation entertainment concept to repurpose large spaces and cinemas as multipurpose digital platforms and entertainment space.
GARETH COOMBS
A specialist in using creativity to improve individual and company success. Co-founder of the leadership consultancy Cambridge Strategy Centre. He is a founding partner of BUG, a team of writers and business thinkers who track new trends and social movements taking place around the world.
In 2015 he became chairman of ValueMakerLtd, a company which helps smaller organisations develop to the point where they can achieve a significant investment event and release capital value. Gareth graduated in philosophy from Warwick University and for 15 years ran award winning advertising campaigns with a variety of national and international clients at Saatchi & Saatchi and other major agencies. He is a former Associate at the London Business School where he tutored on Organisational Behaviour and Leadership for 8 years.
Clients include Anglo American, Asda, BUPA, Coca Cola, Dairy Crest, Forestry Commission, General Mills, GlaxoSmithKline, Harrods, In Bev, L’Oreal , Nestlé Cereals, NHS and WalMart.